


Princess Efnisien

by CathyFowl



Category: Fae Tales - not_poignant
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, But now it's past 4 a.m. and it's finished, Curses, Dr Gary the Master Mage, Dragons, Fairy Tale Elements, Happy Ending, Imprisonment, Mages, Other, Princess Efnisien, Ser Knight of the Order of the Cosy Book Corner Arden, This was half an idea half a dare tbh, but not really ;)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:42:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CathyFowl/pseuds/CathyFowl
Summary: Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away lived a beautiful Princess called Efnisien.
Relationships: Efnisien ap Wledig/Arden Mercury
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	Princess Efnisien

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Falling Falling Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25401025) by [not_poignant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_poignant/pseuds/not_poignant). 



> This little thing was born from a shared love of not_poignants work and the Fae Tales discord server.  
> I have no regrets.
> 
> Warning: While the source fic has many heavy themes, and potential triggers, this is a picture book/fairy tale AU. The themed are alluded to but not explicitly included. Still, take care reading.

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, lived a beautiful Princess called Efnisien.

Her hair was the colour spun gold and was as soft as silk. Her eyes were azure blue, like the depths of the clearest lake. Her stature was tall and willowy, her smiles were warm like sunshine, her laughter like tinkling bells. She was kind and gentle and warm at heart, but her evil stepmother, Queen Crielle envied that her beauty wasn't only skin deep and wished to make the Princess more like herself: perfect on the outside and rotten on the inside.

So the evil Queen fed the Princess honeyed words and wrapped her corruption in token gestures of affection and a play-act at kindness. The Queen was charming and her magic was powerful and slowly she wove a web of curses around the Princess. Princess Efnisien would be beautiful but her every word would become poison. She would be the brightest star of the kingdom but her every touch would wound.

By the time the people of the kingdom realized the evil ways of the Queen, it was too late, her curse has taken hold and after defeating the evil Queen, they had locked away the Princess in a tower, in their fear of her curse.

Years passed and many brave knights and princes have tried to free the Princess but all fell to her curse or the dragon guarding her.

Until one day an ordinary knight happened upon the Princess' tower, not by design but by pure chance.

Ser Arden of the Order of the Cosy Book Corner was a Knight of Stories and guardian of the books placed in his care. He was delivering a collection of ancient fairy tales to the palace when he took a wrong turn and ended up in the meadow where Princess Efnisien's tower stood.

He spotted the Princess from far away, her golden hair catching the soft rays of the afternoon sun, her dress sewn from vibrant green silk, her eyes a breath-taking blue as she gazed down on Ser Arden.

"You should not be here, Ser knight," she said in a soft voice. "Don't you know who I am? Don't you know of my curse? Flee, Ser knight, before it destroys you."

Ser Arden hesitated.

"What is your name then, fair Lady, that I should be aware of it?" He asked.

The Princess hesitated. Not many had braved to speak to her, let alone ask questions. There hasn't been anyone before who stumbled upon her tower without looking for it.

"I am Princess Efnisien, the Accursed One, the Great Calamity upon this land," she said.

She sounded like she meant it but it couldn't have been right.

Ser Arden had heard of the Accursed One, the Great Calamity, the Evil Queen Crielle. She lay dead three years gone, slain by the fearsome Knight Augus. He also heard of the cursed Princess though. Locked away in a tower for her own safety and the safety of the kingdom, while her cousin, Prince Gwyn, had taken the throne.

Was this lovely creature truly cursed?

"Well met, Princess Efnisien," Arden said. "I am Arden of the Order of the Cosy Book Corner."

The greeting seemed to startle the Princess.

"W-well met, Ser knight," the Princess said. "Are you a Knight of Stories?"

"Indeed I am," Ser Arden nodded. "Would you like me to bring you a book or two? It cannot be very interesting to live alone in a tower."

"You should not tarry here, Ser knight," the Princess said, shaking her head. "You should not return, for my curse will most certainly destroy you."

"That may be, but would you like if I brought you a book?" Ser Arden pressed.

Princess Efnisien fell silent again her delicate eyebrows drawing together in concern.

"I... would not be entirely against having a story to entertain me," she said finally. "It _is_ a bit boring here."

"So shall it be," Ser Arden said and smiled warmly up at the lonely Princess. "I shall bring you a book tomorrow, as is my knightly duty. Do you have any preferences?"

The Princess only hesitated a moment this time.

"Nothing red," she said, then added. "Maybe something about the sea?"

Ser Arden returned the next day, only to find a fearsome dragon guarding the tower.

"What is your business here, Ser knight?" It rumbled. It was a very civil dragon, Arden was surprised to find.

"I brought a book for the Princess," Ser Arden said. "She wished to read about the sea."

The dragon studied Ser Arden carefully, then leaned closer to get a better look at the book he was holding.

"Hmmm, you may pass today, but be wary."

"Are you really a knight?" Princess Efnisien asked. "Or are you actually a prince? I've met princes before. Are you going to hurt me like they did?"

Ser Arden drew back in shock.

"I would never hurt you intentionally, Princess," he said.

The dragon had let him into the tower but warned him to take care with the Princess. He didn't realize that its warning was in protection of Princess Efnisien and not of the knight.

"They all hurt me eventually," the Princess said lightly. "As I deserve."

Ser Arden's brows furrowed in worry but he could do nothing for the Princess yet, but offer her the book he'd brought.

"It is not _about_ the sea, but about various creatures rumoured to make their home in the deep," Ser Arden explained.

The Princess took the proffered book and smoothed her small, delicate hands over the deep green cover.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice.

"May I touch your hair?" Ser Arden asked the Princess the next time he'd brought a book for her.

"If you wish, though you really shouldn't. You'll get hurt if you get too close to me," Princess Efnisien answered.

"I'm willing to take that risk," Ser Arden said. He reached out slowly, giving the Princess time to change her mind if she wished. When his fingers touched the beautiful golden locks, he gasped. They were even softer than he'd imagined and as he stroked her hair, Princess Efnisien's eyes fluttered closed.

"That's nice," she said softly and Ser Arden had to suppress a shudder of pleasure at the sound of her voice. The Princess looked so vulnerable like this and Ser Arden wanted nothing more than to protect her and take care of her.

The next time Ser Arden visited the Princess, she refused to let him inside the tower. They spoke through her balcony doors instead.

"It's better that I stay locked away so I can't hurt the people of the realm," Princess Efnisien said with such conviction that Ser Arden's heart ached with it. "It's true that I don't have a curse on me anymore. It's because I never had. I _am_ the curse and everybody who feels kindly of me will surely perish."

"I do not fear your curse, Princess," Ser Arden said.

"Than you are a foolish knight indeed."

"What are your intentions with Princess Efnisien?" The dragon guarding the Princess' tower asked Ser Arden.

"I'm not sure," he confessed. "I want to protect her, but I am unsure of what form that would take."

The dragon nodded generously.

"You may pass for today."

Ser Arden brought a book on various knightly fighting styles for the Princess. This time they sat on the divan together as she leafed through the book, taking a look at the detailed drawings before reading the whole thing from cover to cover.

"These are very well done," Princess Efnisien said. "I've never seen drawings like these before."

"They are made by a friend of mine. I'll let him know that you approve of his skill," Ser Arden said, smiling.

"I'm not certain your friend would take it as a compliment," the Princess said.

"Because it comes from you?"

"Well, yes. Why else?"

"Princess, your favourable regard would always be a compliment," Ser Arden said.

Princess Efnisien said nothing, just turned away. But even so, she couldn't completely hide the blush colouring her cheeks.

"Can embrace you?" Ser Arden asked the next time he visited.

"Embrace me?" Princess Efnisien seemed to hesitate. "I'm not sure that's wise. I would surely hurt you."

"I'd risk it if you would allow," Arden said.

"Alright," the Princess nodded her acquiescence. "You may try."

Arden's arms came around Efnisien's slight frame slowly, carefully. He didn't want to spook the timid Princess, wanted to give her a chance to change her mind if she needed to. When his hands settled on her trim waist and narrow hips, she stiffened but slowly, very slowly she relaxed into the hug.

"Is this what an embrace should feel like?" She asked quietly.

"I believe so," Arden said, then asked, "what does it feel like to you?"

"Warm and kind and gentle and safe," Efnisien answered with surprising honestly.

"Then yes," Arden said, his voice growing deeper with his affection toward the Princess. "It should feel just like that."

"It never had before."

"Why do you keep returning, Ser knight?" The dragon asked.

"I like spending time with the Princess," Ser Arden answered honestly.

"And what if she no longer wishes to spend time with you?"

"I trust that she'll tell me so, and then I shall leave," Arden said.

The dragon regarded him carefully, taking in his simple clothing and ordinary armor, his worn leather satchel that he ferried his books in and his lack of a horse. Maybe he really didn't count as a proper knight but Ser Arden would still stare down the dragon every time he came to visit the Princess, never faltering, never backing down.

"You may pass for today," the dragon said eventually and let Ser Arden enter the tower.

"Would you let me brush your beautiful hair, Princess?" Ser Arden asked.

Princess Efnisien startled at the question.

"I'm not sure..."

She no longer said that it would be bad for Ser Arden to get so close. She no longer warned the knight to stay away.

"You don't have to let me if you do not wish so," Ser Arden said reassuringly.

"I..." Princess Efnisien looked away, her blush like roses in her cheek. "Perhaps... another time...?"

Arden realised that she was afraid that he'd leave if she rejected him.

"That's alright," he said, gentling his voice like he sometimes did to put the shy Princess at ease. "You do not have to let me do anything at all if you don't wish it. I wouldn't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."

"Even if I deserve it?" She asked.

"Deserve what?"

"Feeling bad," she said. "I have caused so much suffering for the people of my kingdom. I deserve to be punished for it."

Ser Arden sat silently for a minute, unsure what to say to that.

"I do not believe you are responsible for as much hurt as you think to have caused," he said finally. "And even if you are, you have been punished enough by being locked away here all alone."

"I will never atone for my wickedness," Princess Efnisien said. "My Queen-mother said so. I was made to hurt those around me. My loveliness is the bait and my wickedness is the trap. And all shall fall into it eventually." She looked up suddenly. "You shouldn't be here. You should leave. Before I hurt you too!"

"Do you _want_ to hurt me?"

"Of course not, but that is my curse," the Princess said. "I always end up hurting the ones I love. I have loved my Queen-mother so much, and lo and behold she's dead now. All because of my curse. Because she tried to protect me from it."

Ser Arden wanted to argue. He wanted to tell the Princess that the whole kingdom knew of the evil of the late-Queen. He wanted to tell her that her curse was the Queen's doing to begin with and that it had long been broken since the late-Queen's death.

But he knew that the Princess wouldn't believe him.

"Alright, I'll leave, my Princess," he said. "Will you allow me to return tomorrow?"

"If you wish," Princess Efnisien said already turning away.

"I shall return on the morrow, then. Fare thee well, Princess."

"And you, Ser knight."

But when the next day came there was not a dragon standing guard at the base of the tower but the Master Mage, Dr Gary instead.

"The Princess does not wish to see you, Ser knight," the Mage spoke with the voice of the dragon and Ser Arden realized that the dragon had been just a shape the Mage had shifted into to appear more threatening.

"Can I hear it from her, Master Mage?"

"She does not wish to speak to you either," Dr Gary said.

"I have made a promise to return today," Ser Arden said. "But if Princess Efnisien changed her mind about seeing me, I shall leave. May I return on the morrow?"

The Master Mage smiled in approval.

"You may."

The next day saw both mage and dragon gone but the gates of the tower remained locked.

Arden stood below Princess Efnisien's balcony and called out to her.

"My Princess, please, let me exchange words with you again," he said.

But Princess Efnisien refused to answer, even though Ser Arden could see her silhouette beyond the open balcony doors.

"As you wish Princess," Ser Arden said after a time. "I shall return on the morrow."

Another day passed and another and another and Ser Arden visited faithfully, sometimes bringing a new book and leaving on at the gates of the tower, sometimes just sitting at the base of the tower and talking about what he saw on his journeys. As long as the Princess didn't forbid him to come back, he always left with the promise to return on the morrow.

A week has passed and Ser Arden got injured in a scuffle with some bandits, unable to return to Princess Efnisien until he'd fully healed.

When he arrived at the tower, Dr Gary was waiting for him. The Master Mage did not ask why Ser Arden was late, he did not accuse or hold the knight accountable. He just asked his usual cryptic question instead.

"What do you wish for the Princess?"

That was simple enough to answer.

"I wish her to be happy," Ser Arden said honestly.

"You have passed."

Princess Efnisien was sitting in her drawing room on the same divan the two of them often shared while talking. She looked paler than usual, her hair seemed to have lost a bit of its ethereal shine, her deep blue dress was slightly wrinkled and she had wrapped a soft, woollen shawl around her narrow shoulders.

"I have brought you a new book," Ser Arden said in greeting.

Princess Efnisien looked up in surprised and her beautiful azure blue eyes flooded with tears.

"You have broken your promise," she said, her voice small and fragile. "You said you would not hurt me intentionally but you've broken your promise."

Her tears have overflown and Arden quickly set the book he'd brought her on the side table and dropped to his knees in front of the weeping Princess.

"I am so sorry, my Princess," he said. "I had no intention to break my promise. You have my deepest apologies. Please, do not cry over such a fool as myself."

"Everyone I've ever loved, the curse has taken from me," Princess Efnisien wept. "I thought it took you too."

Ser Arden set back on his heels.

"Princess, are you... do you mean to say you care for me? A simple Knight of Stories?" He asked carefully.

"Of course I do," Princess Efnisien said between hiccuping sobs. Ser Arden's finger twitched from wanting to wipe those tear away and caress her lovely cheeks. "How could I not? When you've been nothing but kind to me. When you've been patient and accomodating. Brave and tireless and persistent. Even when I sent you away, you asked if you could come back and did, every day. And then... and then..." Her voice broke off and she hid her face in her handkerchief.

"My Princess, may I embrace you?"

"Wh-what?" She looked up in surprise, her eyes red-rimmed from crying so. Ser Arden could never get enough from that startled, innocent look every time he asked for permission to touch her. "If... if you wish to..." She said, nodding hesitantly.

Ser Arden surged forward and wrapped his arms around the Princess, one around her waist, the other around her shoulder, his hand resting against the back of her neck.

"I am here now, my Princess," Ser Arden said, his voice deep and resonant with his emotions. "I am here now and I shall never leave if you so wish."

Princess Efnisien let her forehead drop to Ser Arden's shoulder.

"I do not wish to cage you as I have been caged," she whispered.

"Then come away with me," Ser Arden said emphatically. "There's nothing keeping you here, my Princess. Take a chance on us and come away with me."

The Princess clutched at Ser Arden sides with shaky hands.

"You'd take me away from here?" She asked, like it was an impossible proposition. "You would free me from my imprisonment? You think I deserve to be set free?"

Ser Arden's arms tightened around the Princess.

"Yes, you deserve to be free, and more," he said, finally pulling away to be able to look Princess Efnisien in the eyes. "You deserve to be _happy._ "

The Princess' breath hitched, but she nodded, first slowly but then more vigorously.

"Yes," she said, her face lighting up with a hopeful smile. "When you say it, I can almost believe it. I will go with you, Ser knight. I will leave this tower with you."

No one knows what became of the cursed Princess who's been locked away in a tower to keep the kingdom safe from her. When knights and princes sought out the tower, they only found a crumbling ruin overrun with vegetation.

No one heard of Princess Efnisien since that day, but rumours talk of a young lass accompanying one of the Knights of the Stories. She's fair and wears her golden hair in a thick braid. Her blue eyes are striking, the colour of crystals and precious stones. Her smile is like the warmth of the spring sun. You can only hear her laugh when her knight tells her about the stories he's collected, the sound like wind chimes in the summer breeze. Her knight calls her his Princess, but no one really believes that she's real royalty.

Even though they got their happily ever after.


End file.
